


the way your eyes play games inside my head

by luvloic



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Bullying, Character Death, Fluff, Friendship, Ghosts, Haunted House, M/M, college au ???, college minseok, ghosty friends, minseok is a bullied a little, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23281858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvloic/pseuds/luvloic
Summary: Minseok grows up being able to see ghosts and develops an unspoken friendship with one in his house. Sehun is a ghost who doesn't realize the only person who can see him is the boy who reads by windows all day.
Relationships: Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Oh Sehun
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29
Collections: SEXIUniverse 3rd Verse Collection





	the way your eyes play games inside my head

Bloody noses, fractured bones, and black eyes became a common occurrence in front of the house just sold in Middletown. Minseok was laying on the ground, seven years old, with empty eyes as kids from his new school beat him up. It was a group of them, six other kids who all banded against him because they wanted to. 

The main problem they had with him was that he could see ghosts. Minseok tried to show them, but they couldn’t see. Little kids would come play with him at recess, yet these boys wouldn’t hear of it. They watched as he seemingly talked to himself and offered crayons to the invisible friends sitting next to him, but it creeped them out. People didn’t like what they couldn’t understand. So they resorted to beating the delusions out of him. Rather, he stopped talking to ghosts.

When Minseok and his parents had moved into the house of their dreams, the seven year old boy was in awe at how  _ cool _ the house was. The real estate agent claimed it was abandoned, yet it was in beautiful shape. It was a little creepy with old decrepit vines crawling up the sides, cracked paint covering the beams holding up the front porch, and popcorn paint clinging to the ceilings, but it had three floors and an attic his mother promised him when they were viewing the house.

There was a charm about it that his mom couldn’t shut up about and his dad liked that they had no neighbors with them being in the middle of nowhere. But the charm was what drew Minseok in as well. The furniture left in the house with heavy canvas cloths draping over them was loved with dents and scratches in the woodwork, but the cushions were still in beautiful shape as if no one ever used them. The floors still shined with barely any scratches across the beautiful cherry wood. The walls shimmered with their gloss, newly painted. It was truly a dream house. 

There were some things though, that Minseok couldn’t explain. He was enamored with the sounds he’d hear while his parents were at work in the humid summer, sweat clinging to the back of his shirt where he slouched on the couch. Sometimes he could hear laughs and voices in places his parents didn’t. 

The oddest thing about the new house was how many other people were already living there. His dad delighted in quiet dinner tables and the lack of children screaming in the neighborhood, yet he couldn’t hear the kids running around right outside. The shadow of a tall, thin boy tickled his peripheral wherever he went and caught the curtains sometimes, leaving them moving slightly in still air. The boy (man?) watched him when he was eating or when he was doing his homework. He was like his own guardian angel as Minseok liked to think of him. 

Despite all of this, Minseok knew better than to disturb the peace. 

+++

He kept quiet about their invisible acquaintances from then on. Years passed where he learned to just be quiet. He stayed inside. He spent hours upon hours reading books, sometimes several in one day. He excelled in school, with so much time to himself. He was a sudoku master and video games became an occasional pleasure. Yet, he was still so alone.

Kids at school still refused to talk to him. It was a small town, and it seemed everyone remembered the friends he talked to when he was younger. There were whispers of him being crazy, some said a psychopath, but he was just gifted.

He never told his parents. If they knew, they never confronted him about it. The family was quiet and moved on in silence. Minseok went on to do great things in school, though. He won the town spelling bee, he even won states. He was first in his class and volunteered at the library in town. It was the best way to protect himself.

He didn't, however, get to know the shadow that floated through his house. The tall boy watched him read, sometimes reading as well. He calmed him when he was angry and rubbed his back when he was hiccuping from too many tears. But the boy made sure to never  _ never  _ acknowledge the ghost. He gave off a kind energy, but Minseok couldn’t risk someone seeing him again. Ever.

Growing up, the shadow was always there for him. He had that utmost comforting presence: hugging him when his dad screamed at him for childish mistakes, helping him up when he tripped and fell, picking up and replacing the things he dropped on his little rampades. He was like a big brother or the friend Minseok always needed. Minseok felt his presence wherever he went, especially anywhere in the house. Eyes on him even when no one was physically around. 

When Minseok was fifteen, he finally took it upon himself to clean their house since he liked things laying neatly and everything having its own spot. After mopping the floors, wiping down the walls, vacuuming the stairs, he arrived In the cleaning out of their attic, Minseok found the name of his ghost friend. In dusty boxes and tightly bound leather journals, tales of a boy named Sehun were splayed across newspapers, and scratched across lined paper signed with a little heart and the date at the bottom. The boy graduated from high school and college. He was handsome, in the photos and as a ghost, but Minseok would die before ever getting caught thinking  _ that _ . Sehun was a football star, quarter-back for his high school with a full ride to play division one twenty five years ago.

Minseok gasped when he found the newspaper reporting a horrible murder. He was shaking reading the article about the boy’s long time friend going crazy and murdering Sehun in his home while his parents were attending a business dinner. The friend was trying some scary ritual with Sehun’s blood and then he killed himself on the front lawn, leaving nothing but tragedy plaguing the home. 

Minseok heard crying and when he turned his head, he saw Sehun shaking his head and covering his mouth. It was heart-breaking. Minseok reached out a hand to comfort him and rub his shoulder, but thought better of it and dropped his hand.

+++

At seventeen, Minseok was already ushered off to college. He was sent to university in the hopes of coming home with more friends than when he left. He had fun, sure, but the presence that had consistently been with him for the past ten years was gone with an acceptance letter. 

The ghost wasn’t there to comfort him anymore. The shadows that played in his peripheral were actual shadows. The person reading next to him wasn’t the one he wanted. 

College was really not all it was made out to be in the movies and the books. Minseok didn’t like excessive drinking, he didn’t understand the love of it in the immature. He stayed away from drugs and focused on keeping his scholarships. With nothing on his mind but school and Sehun, Minseok was desperate for something familiar. He wanted to go home, really. 

He never realized how much he would miss Sehun, because they never spoke. Minseok tried his hardest to ignore his presence but that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate him being there for him. He tried to picture his face well enough to draw him and that’s how it began, his new favorite hobby. 

Drawing was the  _ perfect _ thing to fill his time. It was a skill he needed to hone since he rarely practiced as a kid or in high school outside of essays and mandatory journal entries. He purchased a sketchbook and spent his time daydreaming of Sehun back at home. He wondered what he could possibly be up to. What does one do with twenty years to themselves? Minseok had so many questions he could never ask. 

He practiced drawing Sehun. Minseok put pencil to paper in realizing how sharp the man’s cheekbones were and how stealthy his eyes seemed when they slid over book pages in the seat across from him. The man was beautiful: sharp nose, angular jawline, strong persona. 

He was everything Minseok dreamed of.

+++ 

The college student drew Sehun every chance he got. Over and over, whenever he had the time. Random spectators in his classes would ask who it was and if they knew him and everytime Minseok gave the same answer: he doubted it. 

When he visited home on breaks, it was a blessing and a curse. Each time he walked through the door his parents would question about who he was hanging out with, the friends he’s made, whether or not he had a girlfriend (that was going to be a tough break). They never questioned his grades or his classes, really. He was getting his doctorate in business, and they seemed fine with that.

On the more positive note of break, he got to see Sehun again. The boy was the exact same. The boyish grin Minseok spotted through his bedroom window on the second floor, his tall stature following him throughout the house as he drifted from room to room trying to find a spot to sit and read, and the kindness in his presence. It was all the same.

He brought his sketchbooks when he came home. With all the drawing he’d done in university, it was only natural for him to continue on break when he finally had the reference in front of him. Yet, a part of him was embarrassed. 

All this time, he spent drawing the same thing over and over again. Someone he’d never talked to or physically interacted with… he almost felt bad. Minseok had spent so much time ignoring Sehun that the ghost probably didn’t know Minseok knew he was there. 

+++

After years of the same schedule, Minseok was home for the spring break once again. It was his birthday, freshly turned twenty-five, when he decided to sit down to read once again, for old time’s sake. 

Minseok was sitting in a cushioned armchair by the attic window, book in his lap and cup of tea in his hand, when he heard fast steps flying up the steps. “You  _ knew? _ ” came the oh-so-familiar voice from the boy in front of him. The voice that had comforted him so many times. The voice that had been there when nothing else was.

Minseok jerked his head up and there he was. Same as always in low-rise jeans and that dark gray t-shirt that hung from Sehun’s shoulders. Ruffled hair. Socked feet. His drawings in his hands. “These are  _ me!”  _ Minseok couldn’t quite read the look on the boy’s face; it was somewhere between anger and relief.

“Those  _ are _ you.” Minseok didn’t know what to say. Thank you? For everything the boy had done for him growing up? I’m sorry? For not acknowledging him throughout their years together? It was a complicated whirl of thoughts going through Minseok’s mind. How was he supposed to react? 

“All these years, and you never said anything? After all of my time sticking by your side? Nothing?” Sehun was confused it seemed. Angry and confused. “What, did I mean nothing to you?”

“You’re misunderstanding, Sehun.” The boy closed his eyes when a tear escaped. “You meant everything to me; you’re all that I have.” 

Sehun was shaking his head. His bony shoulders shook as he started crying, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks. “All this time…” The boy walked closer and Minseok put his cup down and moved his book to the table. He opened his arms and the thin ghost strolled closer, falling into his lap. “All this time, you were the only one keeping me from being alone. But you never even  _ acknowledged _ me.” The boy hid his face in his shoulder and cried, relief shaking his torso. 

“I was scared they’d take you away from me, Sehun.” Minseok was a little nervous, he wouldn’t lie. All these years, keeping quiet about the figures looming about that no one else acknowledged, only to finally have his best friend, his only friend in his arms at last. “People are scared of what they can’t comprehend.”

“I was there for you through everything, and I just can’t believe it.” The boy looked tired, he was exhausted in Minseok’s arms.

“You’re the only one I’ve ever cared for. Why do you think I come back multiple times a year? To get berated by my parents?” He chuckled and snuggled closer to the long-time friend filling space that could never be filled by anyone else. 

“Perhaps… at least the drawings are pretty,” Sehun sighed in exhaustion. Minseok chuckled. 

“They’re all because I missed you, ‘Hun. I can’t stop thinking about you when I’m gone,” the elder sighed, rubbing the ghost’s back as he had done for him so many times oh so many years ago.

Sehun lifted his head and preened in the embrace of his friend. “Really?” 

“Really.”

+++

That same week, Sehun explained that when he was cursed to stay in this house, the person who performed the ritual locking him in (it wasn’t his friend, Sehun ranted about the press getting that horribly incorrect. It was just some random kid who was in the same Algebra class as him freshman year of high school) said he’d never get out without a human to accompany him. The two sat and tried to decode that message for a while, when it hit Minseok.

“I think they just meant until you find someone you can talk to. Someone who can see and interact with you.” Minseok watched the ghost’s eyebrows pinch.

When it was time for Minseok to go back to college, they got to try their plan for real. Minseok had all his sketchbooks in his backpack and his laptop bag on his hip. His pillow under his arm as he hugged his parents for the last time (again) before heading back to school. 

He walked through the door, and Sehun followed him. Right outside. 

Sehun threw his arms in the air and started running around the yard yelling about the feeling of freedom. Minseok watched the front door close and laughed telling his jackass of a friend to get in the car. 

On the way Sehun was nothing but inquisitive. He asked what he wanted to do after college and if he wanted to marry anyone, the sports he wished he played, what his favorite classes and places on campus were. Minseok answered all his questions, asking many of his own. All the questions he could never ask before spilled out of excited lips and through a happy smile. Laughter was constantly filling the car as Minseok explained phones and how the internet worked. It was amusing explaining the developments from their time gap. Best friends together at last. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, thanks for reading!!!! i really appreciate it and you probably don't know who wrote this, but hello! I hope you liked the short lil story of ghosty sehun and I hope you tell me what you think in the comments :—) happy birthday minseok :o
> 
> you can also find me on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/xiuwusoo)


End file.
